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Axelrod Puts Stimulus Plan at $675 Billion to $775 Billion

The last Sunday of the year was a quiet one on the network’s morning talk shows, with David Axelrod, President-elect Barack Obama’s political adviser, looking ahead to the new administration while Laura Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice reflected on the past eight years.

In addition, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni defended Israel’s ongoing air assault on Gaza on “Fox News Sunday” and NBC’s “Meet the Press.” Mr. Axelrod said that Mr. Obama was monitoring the situation in Gaza, and that he has spoken with Ms. Rice about the attack.

Mr. Axelrod, speaking on “Face the Nation” and “Meet the Press,” underscored the special relationship between the United States and Israel but did not elaborate on the specifics of the situation in Gaza, stating that “in America, there’s only one president at a time.”

Regarding the new administration’s stimulus plan, Mr. Axelrod also said that the exact dollar amount Mr. Obama will seek has not yet been determined. “We’ve talked about a package from $675 billion to $775 billion,” he said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”

The president-elect also intends to follow through quickly on his promise for tax relief for most Americans, Mr. Axelrod said, this time on “Meet the Press.” As for repealing the Bush tax cut for the wealthiest Americans, he said that whether it was repealed early or allowed to expire as scheduled at the end of 2010, the tax cut would eventually disappear.

“It’s going to go, it has to go,” he said.

The “Meet the Press” host, David Gregory, pressed Mr. Axelrod on whether Rahm Emanuel, the Mr. Obama’s chief of staff, or any of his other advisers had been asked for any favors by Illinois Gov. Rod. R. Blagojevich, who faces federal corruption charges that include trying to sell Mr. Obama’s vacant Senate seat to the highest bidder.

Mr. Axelrod said no. “There was no reason to believe that there was anything unusual or untoward going on that would require contact with the U.S. attorney’s office,” he said.

And speaking on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” Illinois Lieutenant Governor Pat Quinn said that he believed Mr. Blagojevich would be impeached by the Illinois legislature — by Lincoln’s 200th birthday on Feb. 12 — and that he stood ready to step into his place.

He said that if he became governor, he would hold a special election for the vacant Senate seat, but that it probably would not be able to take place until June. In the interim, a temporary senator would be appointed.

“If I am the governor, I would certainly push that kind of a law, and we’ll see what happens,” he said. It’s important, he said, to “make sure Illinois has two senators at all times.”

Mr. Axelrod also defended Mr. Obama’s decision to invite Rick Warren, the influential evangelical pastor, to deliver the invocation at his inauguration. Mr. Warren, who brought both John McCain and Mr. Obama to his California church this past August, in at least one interview likened committed gay relationships to incest and polygamy.

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While Mr. Obama and Mr. Warren disagree about “civil rights for gays and lesbians and a woman’s right to choose,” Mr. Axelrod said, the two men agree on issues like fighting poverty and disease in Africa.

Mr. Warren’s inclusion, he said, was a symbol of Mr. Obama’s campaign promise to “build bridges of understanding and move this country forward.”

“The important point here is that you have a conservative evangelical pastor who’s coming to participate in the inauguration of a progressive president, and this is a healthy thing and a good thing for our country,” Mr. Axelrod said.

Also on Sunday, Secretary Rice and Mrs. Bush took a moment to share some things about themselves that might be little known.

On CBS’s “Sunday Morning,” Ms. Rice shared her surprise about the reaction she got in 2005, when she wore the nearly knee-high leather boots with heels paired with a short skirt one chilly afternoon in Wiesbaden, Germany. The picture made fashion headlines around the world.

“Well, but I wore the boots because it was cold. I’ve tried so hard to explain to people that that outfit was — it was really a surprise to me that there was any commentary about it, because I grew up — well, spent a lot of my life in Colorado. When it’s cold, you wear boots,” she said.

On her own look-back interview on “Fox News Sunday,” First Lady Laura Bush said that President Bush “was in trouble” for telling an interviewer recently that one thing he was not looking forward to after the White House was her cooking.

But then she conceded on “Fox News Sunday” that she “can’t even remember cooking.”

“It’s been 14 years since we moved into the Texas governor’s mansion,” she said. But, she added, “I love to read cookbooks. I’m very interested in food, and I’m a reader, as you know.”

Interviewer Chris Wallace responded, “I hate to say this, but — all due respect, Mrs. Bush, reading doesn’t actually get the meal on the table.”

The First Lady smiled, and said that she intended to cook for Mr. Bush “when it’s just us.”.